Don't visit your elderly parents? In China you could get sued
BEIJING (AP) — Visit your parents. That's an order.
So says China, whose national legislature on Friday amended its law on the elderly to require that adult children visit their aged parents "often" — or risk being sued by them.
The amendment does not specify how frequently such visits should occur.
State media say the new clause will allow elderly parents who feel neglected by their children to take them to court. The move comes as reports abound of elderly parents being abandoned or ignored by their children.
A rapidly developing China is facing increasing difficulty in caring for its aging population. Three decades of market reforms have accelerated the breakup of the traditional extended family in China, and there are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement or care homes, for the elderly or others unable to live on their own.
Earlier this month, state media reported that a grandmother in her 90s in the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu had been forced by her son to live in a pig pen for two years. News outlets frequently carry stories about other parents being abused or neglected, or of children seeking control of their elderly parents' assets without their knowledge.
The expansion of China's elderly population is being fueled both by an increase in life expectancy — from 41 to 73 over five decades — and by family planning policies that limit most families to a single child. Rapid aging poses serious threats to the country's social and economic stability, as the burden of supporting the growing number of elderly passes to a proportionately shrinking working population and the social safety net remains weak.
Go figure, I thought that they were working side by side with their grandkids at the Nike factory.
Not quite sure how creating a child entitles 'parents' to a lifetime of care and respect from that child. Love and respect from parent to child and vice versa is earned, not litigated.
Hahaha.
What's next for the US feel good adopters, adopt the elderly in China. Buy a baby get a free grandpa.
well the life expectancy was lower because of World War II and their own Civil War.
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If everyone just redvined, there would less problems! http://redvining.blogspot.com/
The average life expectancy in China in the 60's was only 41? That's some great society you had, Mao.
Doesn't China already have a lot of Su's?
Meanwhile, here in the obviously superior US, we just put our parents in industrialized storage facillities called 'retirement homes', take them Christmas candy once a year, and hope that they kick off before they exhaust their 401k so that we can recoup the cost of storage. Meanwhile, the medical and pharmicutical industries extract every last dime out of them while they're still 'alive' so as to hedge up profits for the shareholders. Â
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Mind you, I'm not saying that China is in any way superior to the US in it's ideological/sociological leanings or laws. What I am saying is that we are hardly a country to be judging others about how the family dynamic is developed. Those in glass houses, as it were.Â
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Sometimes progress, such as moving away from the farm or family and into the factory, isn't really progress at all. It all depends on your perspective and priorities. Do you want to fill your life with inanimate consumer stuff or an intact family?
Good thing I don't have any elderly parents in China then, isn't it?
"Earlier this month, state media reported that a grandmother in her 90s in the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu had been forced by her son to live in a pig pen for two years. News outlets frequently carry stories about other parents being abused or neglected, or of children seeking control of their elderly parents' assets without their knowledge."
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It happens in America as well! What is with all the Chinese news of late?
Just like a lot of merchandise, it's from the expanding Chinese economy! LOL
I sure hope my children visit me when I am about to kick the bucket.
 @mikeyb123 I hope my kids will leave me the hell alone.
I'd hardly call that baby a "newborn" Tsk :( And besides...it's kind of hard to find the time to visit gramps or grammy when all of you work in a factory trying to write letters to hide to let the whole world know how bad you have it....all in perfect English I'll have ya know :)
 @fracas Prison labor camps and factories are not necessarily the same thing.
Good kids will always keep in contact with their parents. Â The others will only if there is something in it for them, such as an inheritance. Â Too many older people only hear from their kids a couple of times a year, Christmas, birthdays for an example. Â The rest of the time the kids don't care about anyone except themselves. Â I'd wager that in China and many other foreign lands, the families are a lot closer than they are in this country. Â With some of the terrible things children have done to their parents in this country lately, it would probably be better to have a law keeping them apart.
Soon to become part of O'Bamacare.
@HenryBowman Obama is Irish??? You must mean O'Biden.
 @WendyTeagarden  @HenryBowman Sorry Wen, he's handling the dismantling of the 2nd amendment
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You can't litigate love and responsibility.